[MrEnergyCzar]

Forget the EV's range anxiety, the car is rendered useless during these more frequent power outages in the east. What do people do if the Leaf is their only car and they have no power for a week?

MrEnergyCzar

 

[tboult]

What do people do if the Leaf is their only car and they have no power for a week?

Obviously, they call in and say they are "powerless" to get to work..

 

[leeG]

They drive to work in their ICE or on their bicycle and use the Leaf to power the house?

Using the battery of an electric car as a source of energy after a natural disaster is now being implemented in Japan. Another earthquake/tsunami lesson.

 

[baltimore17]

A friend who's an executive with BGE, the local electric utility, once mentioned that the practical range of an electric car had to be twice your round trip commute. This accounted for the likelihood that the power could be out for the occasional overnight, but rarely for two nights in a row. She may have been optimistic, but after 35 years living in downtown Baltimore, I've never had power out over an entire night.

Well the real answer is to get a Volt, of course!

 

[ari_c]

A friend who's an executive with BGE, the local electric utility, once mentioned that the practical range of an electric car had to be twice your round trip commute. This accounted for the likelihood that the power could be out for the occasional overnight, but rarely for two nights in a row. She may have been optimistic, but after 35 years living in downtown Baltimore, I've never had power out over an entire night.

Well the real answer is to get a Volt, of course!

You obviously don't have Pepco! I have NOVEC in Fairfax Station and when there is a major storm I usually lose power, and it's generally for a few days. The power lines in my neighborhood comes from Clifton and I am at the end of the line, so my power is one of the last to come on. I definitely would not consider a Leaf in my situation.

 

[voltage692]

Nissan has the perfect solution: Rent an ICE car.

 

[bronco7TX]

I live in MA and just went through this crazy October snow storm. All my co-workers how I drove my car over the weekend with the power out and I kind of gave them a blank stare first then realized they didn't understand how the car worked. Perfect opportunity to explain the advantages of the Volt!

P.S. I had to drive through part of the snow storm Saturday night and the Volt did GREAT in a blinding snow storm with an interstate that was un-plowed and trees down all over the place causing the need to maneuver in the snow. Yet another reason to love this car!

 

[Jim I]

If there was one feature I would like to be added to my Volt, it would be V2G (Volt To Grid) capability.

We have discussed this many times here at gm-volt.com over the last four + years.

We have this nice big battery pack connected to a ICE powered generator.

When power fails, this would be a perfect solution to keep a few items running in the house, like the furnace, the fridge, and maybe a light or two.

If GM would make this a reasonably priced upgrade option to Volts already in the field, I would buy it!!

GM, are you listening? Think of the great press you would get - Not only is it the best car available, but it also provides additional protection during Mother Nature's bad moods..............



C-5277 - Purchased 10-04-2011

 

[saghost]

If they're expecting an outage, or believe that they are in an area prone to them, they will likely have a generator - which could also be used to charge the car, especially if they got one of the 240v plug converted EVSEs...

Actually, for my Volt I see this as a strength - not only is it of course fully able to drive to work on gas, but it is more likely to have a mostly full tank than a standard gas car would (since I'd mostly only use gas on road trips, I'm more likely to stop to "top it off" compared to gas cars that I routinely ran to the low fuel light.)

 

[voltage692]

If they're expecting an outage, or believe that they are in an area prone to them, they will likely have a generator - which could also be used to charge the car, especially if they got one of the 240v plug converted EVSEs...

Actually, for my Volt I see this as a strength - not only is it of course fully able to drive to work on gas, but it is more likely to have a mostly full tank than a standard gas car would (since I'd mostly only use gas on road trips, I'm more likely to stop to "top it off" compared to gas cars that I routinely ran to the low fuel light.)

It's the opposite for me. My Volt is usually very low on gasoline compared to my ICE only cars that were filled up every week at least. So many days can be done without gas, it's practical to leave it close to empty.

 

[jeffhre]

Do gas pumps work if the power is out?

 

[voltage692]

Do gas pumps work if the power is out?

Usually not. But it's different with an ICE because you can already have 400 miles of actual range in the tank and you can drive to a place with electricity for their pumps to fill up quickly. A BEV doesn't fill up quick. And you can stock pile gasoline a lot easier/cheaper than electricity.

 

[pavers123]

If they're expecting an outage, or believe that they are in an area prone to them, they will likely have a generator - which could also be used to charge the car, especially if they got one of the 240v plug converted EVSEs...

Actually, for my Volt I see this as a strength - not only is it of course fully able to drive to work on gas, but it is more likely to have a mostly full tank than a standard gas car would (since I'd mostly only use gas on road trips, I'm more likely to stop to "top it off" compared to gas cars that I routinely ran to the low fuel light.)

I admit that I leave it close to empty for a while as well. In fact I recently left it on "Low Fuel" for a couple of days much to my wife's concern. That said, this is not a good strategy if the SHTF or TEOTWAWKI, for those that subscribe to those theories. I think it is a good idea to have half gallon of gas in the tank if you are anywhere near a metropolitan area, particularly DC and NYC.

 

[Lee Willis]

I'm not worried about outages with the gasoline backup but it is possible that in the height of a snowstorm, outage or not, I might not want to drive the Volt, plus frankly the heater is anemic in really really cold weather. I have gasoline cars (a Ferrari w 3500 m., a '66 Sunbeam with so many the odo has lost count) but they are not appropriate for winter, so I bought a '99 Chrysler 300 today in reasonable condition as a 'contingency car' for $1800, with new snow tires on the front. It will sit \around back of the garage under a car cover, come the bad storm.

 

[voltage692]

$1800 sounds like cheap insurance, but a Chrysler that old that will sit for long periods of time sounds like an expensive repair bill waiting to happen.

I'm not worried about outages with the gasoline backup but it is possible that in the height of a snowstorm, outage or not, I might not want to drive the Volt, plus frankly the heater is anemic in really really cold weather. I have gasoline cars (a Ferrari w 3500 m., a '66 Sunbeam with so many the odo has lost count) but they are not appropriate for winter, so I bought a '99 Chrysler 300 today in reasonable condition as a 'contingency car' for $1800, with new snow tires on the front. It will sit \around back of the garage under a car cover, come the bad storm.